Tag: Wichita State Basketball

It is worth repeating that since Michigan State is still the gold-standard program in the Big Ten, past Michigan State losses in the NCAA Tournament don’t represent events which helped Wisconsin. Michigan State, given its prominent status today, has not truly been knocked off course. Wisconsin has, however, benefited from other Big Ten basketball programs being derailed as a result of specific March moments, and it is those moments we are looking at in March of 2020, when there is no live college basketball to preview before Sweet 16 Thursday and Friday.

One March moment we looked at was Indiana’s devastating Sweet 16 loss to Syracuse in 2013. The moment we will look at here is the Ohio State Buckeyes’ Elite Eight loss to the Wichita State Shockers in Los Angeles in 2013. This occurred one day after the Syracuse-Indiana outcome, so one could very legitimately say that in one 24-hour period seven Marches ago, Wisconsin basketball gained a much brighter future, though no one could have known it at the time.

If you recall, Ohio State was the No. 2 seed in the West Region in the 2013 NCAA Tournament. Wichita State, the 9 seed, took out top-seeded Gonzaga in the second round. La Salle beat No. 4 seed Kansas State in the first round and moved to the Sweet 16. Third-seeded New Mexico lost to 14th-seeded Harvard in the first round. The four teams gathered in L.A. for the Sweet 16 in the West were a 13 seed, a 9 seed, a 6 seed — Arizona — and second-seeded Ohio State. The Buckeyes were a runaway favorite for the Final Four entering that weekend, and when they dispatched Arizona — a team with a big partisan crowd in Los Angeles — their status as Final Four favorite grew exponentially.

All the Buckeyes had to do to make the Final Four was beat a No. 9 seed which was on a roll, but did not have the depth or length of Ohio State, especially not in the frontcourt. Ohio State had a lot of rangy and athletic players — no seven-footers, but a lot of 6-7 and 6-8 players who could play over the top of their opponent and get to the basket. Deshaun Thomas was the star, with LaQuinton Ross and Sam Thompson forming the rest of the frontcourt supporting cast. Aaron Craft held down the fort in the backcourt. Ohio State should have been committed to a game plan which relentlessly attacked Wichita State’s defense, forcing the Shockers to play man-to-man defense and stay in front of the dribbler. Ohio State was likely to be too quick and too powerful for WSU to hold up in one-on-one situations.

The Buckeyes instead did what the Shockers hoped they would do: Ohio State chucked threes and missed a ton of them.

Ohio State attempted 25 triples and made only five. Thomas was 0 for 6 from 3-point range. Craft and Ross were both 2 of 7. Ohio State did, at times, go to the basket, as shown by the Buckeyes’ 29 free throw attempts. However, they didn’t do that the whole game. Ohio State scored 44 points in the second half, fueled by the urgency of the moment, but that was only after a disastrous 22-point first half in which Wichita State was able to build a 35-22 halftime lead. Ohio State played dumb basketball for most of the afternoon, and then got smart only when it was too little, too late.

The final: 70-66, Shockers.

Ohio State missed out on back-to-back Final Fours, having gone in 2012 under coach Thad Matta. This turned out to be Matta’s last great shot at the Final Four and national championship. His coaching career and the Ohio State program have never regrouped since then. The 2018 Buckeyes did get a No. 5 seed under Chris Holtmann, but OSU has never been a Final Four threat since 2013, and it is clear that the Buckeyes are still searching for a return to the heights of the Matta era… which ended on that Saturday in the Elite Eight seven years ago.

Wisconsin has been the far superior program to Ohio State since then.